Dr Catherine Holmes

I am a historian of the politics and the culture of the Mediterranean world, including Byzantium, between the tenth and early fifteenth centuries. I am particularly interested in frontiers, in relations between different religious and ethnic groups, in comparative political culture, and in the Global Middle Ages.

Byzantines, Latins and Greeks in the Eastern Mediterranean World after 1150 (ed. with J. Harris and E. Russell) (Oxford, 2012)

The late medieval eastern Mediterranean, before its incorporation into the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century, presents a complex and fragmented picture. The Ayyubid and Mamluk sultanates held sway over Egypt and Syria, Asia Minor was divided between a number of Turkish emirates, the Aegean between a host of small Latin states, and the Byzantine Empire was only a fragment of its former size.

This collection of thirteen original articles, by both established and younger scholars, seeks to find common themes that unite this disparate world. Focusing on religious identity, cultural exchange, commercial networks, and the construction of political legitimacy among Christians and Muslims in the late Medieval eastern Mediterranean, they discuss and analyse the interaction between these religious cultures and trace processes of change and development within the individual societies. A detailed introduction provides a broad geopolitical context to the contributions and discusses at length the broad themes which unite the articles and which transcend traditional interpretations of the eastern Mediterranean in the later medieval period.

Basil II and the Governance of Empire (Oxford, 2005)

This is the first book-length study in English of the Byzantine emperor Basil II. Basil II, later known as 'Bulgar-slayer', is famous for his military conquests and his brutal intimidation of domestic foes. Catherine Holmes considers the problems Basil faced in governing a large, multi-ethnic empire, which stretched from southern Italy to Mesopotamia. Her close focus on the surviving historical narratives, above all the Synopsis Historion of John Skylitzes, reveals a Byzantium governed as much by persuasion as coercion. This book will appeal to those interested in Byzantium before the Crusades, the governance of pre-modern empires, and the methodology of writing early medieval political history.

This collection of papers offers a variety of new perspectives on the related topics of literacy, education and manuscript transmission in Byzantium and among neighbouring cultures by analysing recently discovered or rarely consulted sources materials.

In 2005 I completed a monograph on Byzantine politics, government and historiography: Basil II and the Governance of Empire, 976-1025. My current research involves reinterpreting the eastern Mediterranean world that was created in the later Middle Ages by the collapse of Byzantium and the rise of the Ottomans. In 2012 I published an edited book in this field with Jonathan Harris and Eugenia Russell: Byzantines, Latins and Turks in the Eastern Mediterranean World after 1150. I have also become intrigued by the possibilities of medieval history on a global scale. Together with Naomi Standen (Birmingham) I ran an AHRC-funded network of medieval historians and archaeologists with interests in 'Defining the Global Middle Ages' (2012-15). The project members are now co-writing a book on this subject: Before Columbus. Towards a Global Middle Ages. I am also the co-convenor of a project which compares the political cultures of Byzantium, the medieval Islamic world and the Latin West. I am one of the editors of The English Historical Review.

Defining the Global Middle Ages (AHRC Research Network)

2015 |

Journal article

Byzantines, Latins, and Turks in the Eastern Mediterranean World After 1150

2012 |

Book

Shared Worlds: A question of evidence

2012 |

Chapter

Basil II the Bulgar-slayer and the Blinding of 15,000 Bulgarians in 1014: Mutilation and Prisoners of War in the Middle Ages

2012 |

Chapter

Treaties Between Byzantium and the Islamic World

2011 |

Chapter

Provinces and capital

2010 |

Chapter

Political Literacy

2010 |

Chapter

Byzantine Political Culture and Compilation Literature in the Tenth and Eleventh Centuries